Tag Archives: politics

A handful of underrated sci-fi graphic novels

Posted on March 13, 2025 by I.M. Baytor

As you may have gathered from my post on Blackhawks: The Great Leap Gorward last month, I’ve been revisiting older sci-fi comics with the new hindsight of someone living under a looming era of techno-fascism by chatbot. With that in … Continue reading →

Posted in FANTASTIC ADVENTURES | Tagged 2000 AD, Chantal Montellier, City of Silence, Counterfeit Girl, Dom Regan, Ellie De Ville, Emma Ríos, Gary Erskine, Geoffrey Brock, Habitat, I.D., Jan Strnad, Jeremy Brood, Peter Milligan, politics, Richard Corben, Rufus Dayglo, science fiction, Simon Roy, Social Fiction, Warren Ellis | Leave a comment

Spotlight on Blackhawks: The Great Leap Forward

Posted on February 13, 2025 by I.M. Baytor

The original Blackhawk comics debuted way back in 1941 and revolved around the missions of an eponymous air squadron battling against the Axis powers during World War II. In typical comics fashion, though, the concept kept getting reinvented every generation … Continue reading →

Posted in FANTASTIC ADVENTURES | Tagged BIT, Blackhawks, CAFU, Graham Nolan, Guy Major, Howard Chaykin, Jacen Burrows, Jeff Lemire, Jim Lee, Jonathan Hickman, Ken Lashley, Martin Pasko, Matt Kindt, Mike Costa, politics, Rick Burchett, science fiction | Leave a comment

COMICS CAN BE AWESOME (3 February 2025)

Posted on February 3, 2025 by I.M. Baytor

I’m setting aside splash pages, for a bit. Instead, in February, these weekly reminders that comics can be awesome will be excerpts of sequences that have stuck in my mind. Over the past years one of my ‘guilty’ pleasures has … Continue reading →

Posted in GLIMPSES INTO AWESOMENESS | Tagged Aditya Bidikar, Fernando Blanco, horror, James Tynion IV, Jordie Bellaire, politics, W0rldtr33 | Leave a comment

Back to Slough House

Posted on December 5, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

Having recently read what may very well be my favorite Mick Herron novel so far, The Secret Hours, I was going to write one of Gotham Calling’s occasional pieces about spy yarns without pictures inside… Between this and catching up … Continue reading →

Posted in SPYCRAFT & WARFARE | Tagged Cold War, espionage, John le Carré, Mick Herron, politics, Slough House | Leave a comment

COMICS CAN BE AWESOME (28 October 2024)

Posted on October 28, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

First, some housekeeping: I’m still struggling to conciliate the blog with other commitments, but instead of going on yet another hiatus, I’m shifting into a biweekly rhythm, so the longer Thursday posts will now appear only every other week (the … Continue reading →

Posted in ART OF HORROR COMICS | Tagged Artie Simek, Bill Everett, Christopher Rule, covers, D. Bruce Berry, Dick Ayers, Dr. Mabuse, George Klein, horror, Jack Kirby, Journey into Mystery, Kamandi, movies, politics, Stan Goldberg, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish | Leave a comment

A couple of offbeat spy novels

Posted on October 10, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

When I’m not compulsively watching spy shows on TV, spy fiction tends to occupy a sizeable portion of my reading time, so I thought I’d share a few impressions on a couple of novels that approach the genre in very … Continue reading →

Posted in SPYCRAFT & WARFARE | Tagged 54, Cold War, espionage, G.K. Chesterton, politics, The Man Who Was Thursday, Wu Ming | Leave a comment

80’s-style action comics

Posted on October 3, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

Predator: Concrete Jungle #2 With its foul-mouthed, sweaty badass men (and women), anti-government attitude, and casualty-heavy set pieces, the 1980s’ wave of outrageous action movies had a specific vibe that has become affectionately known in some circles as ‘absurd macho … Continue reading →

Posted in WEBS OF FICTION | Tagged Alien, Chris Chanelor, Chris Warner, Denis Beauvais, Diana Schutz, Evan Dorkin, John Arcudi, Mark A. Nelson, Mark Verheiden, movies, politics, Predator, Randy Stradley, Ron Randall, Sam Kieth, science fiction, Terminator | Leave a comment

Third Gotham Calling Manifesto

Posted on September 19, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

Detective Comics #483 I started this blog a decade ago in the spirit of entertainment – for others as much as for myself. I spent much of my life reading and thinking about Batman comics, so I wanted to share … Continue reading →

Posted in MANIFESTO | Tagged Brendan McCarthy, David Lopez, Erica Henderson, espionage, movies, politics, science fiction, western, Will Pfeifer | Leave a comment

Even more Batman movies without Batman – mainstream action edition!

Posted on September 12, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

Every once in a while, I like to spotlight films that, although they don’t feature the Dark Knight himself, share enough of Batman comics’ quirky vibe to be of interest for fans of that sort of stuff. This time, my … Continue reading →

Posted in WEBS OF FICTION | Tagged Chuck Dixon, movies, politics | 2 Comments

More thoughts on 21st-century spy shows: Cold War edition

Posted on May 23, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

When I wrote about the TV series Slow Horses, last month, I mentioned how one of the departures from the source novels was that the show didn’t take advantage of the potential of sleeper agents to act as metaphors for … Continue reading →

Posted in SPYCRAFT & WARFARE | Tagged A Spy Among Friends, Agent Carter, Alfred Pennyworth, Cold War, Deutschland 83, espionage, Glória, John le Carré, Kathryn Immonen, movies, Pennyworth, politics, Rich Ellis, Spy/Master, The Americans, The Game, The Sleepers, The Sympathizer, Vietnam | Leave a comment